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A dark bridge. A screaming baby. Apparitions in the night. The country is full of “crybaby bridge” legends, but is there any truth to the disturbing tales?

The Legend
Depending on where you live, the crybaby bridge legend goes something like this: A woman is traveling with her baby (or small child) when disaster strikes. Perhaps it’s a tragic accident that results in mother and child plummeting over the side of the bridge. Perhaps the mother is angry or distraught and hurls her baby into the creek below. Perhaps there’s more than one child. Perhaps there’s a murderous father. Though multiple versions of the legend exist, they all agree on one thing: a baby dies near a bridge and its ghostly wails now haunt the tragic site. At times, the mother’s grieving ghost appears in the woods nearby, sobbing and calling out for her lost child.

Here’s a creepy horror animation video inspired by an old urban legend. A reader, Jra, created it. Check out more of his work on YouTube!

Has anyone else heard of this legend? It was new to me.

The Legend

“In college, some friends and I heard about an engineering student that, during his final exams, got a call in the middle of the night from his mother to tell him the worst news: his brother had died in a strange accident. The next day, the student disappeared and was never seen again. No one —not his teachers, peers, or tutors— knew what happened to him, and the event was forever shrouded in mystery.

Not long ago, at an old students meeting, a friend told me that he’d spoken to someone who knew what really happened that night: The student’s brother really did die in a terrible accident, and he did speak to his mother that night. However, his mother didn’t call him with the news, he called her…because his dead brother was in his room.”

*Please note, the video is in Spanish but has English captions which viewers may need to switch on.

Looking for creepy reading? Here are 70 Wikipedia articles that will keep you up at night. We’ve got ghosts, ghouls, monsters, and urban legends. Enjoy!

The Bell Witch – “The Bell Witch or Bell Witch Haunting is a purported poltergeist legend from Southern folklore, centered on the 19th century Bell family of Adams, Tennessee.”

The Amityville Horror – “The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. The book is said to be based on the real-life paranormal experiences of the Lutz family.”

Bridgewater Triangle – “The Bridgewater Triangle refers to an area of about 200 square miles within southeastern Massachusetts claimed to be a site of alleged paranormal phenomena.”

Crybaby Bridge – “Crybaby Bridge is a nickname given to some bridges. The name often reflects an urban legend that the sound of a baby can be, or has been, heard from the bridge. Many are also accompanied by an urban legend of a baby or young child/children being killed nearby.”

The Weeping Woman – “Maria is forced to wander the Earth for all eternity, searching in vain for her drowned offspring, with her constant weeping giving her the name ‘La Llorona.’”

Bloody Mary – “Bloody Mary is a legendary ghost or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is called multiple times.”

Greenbrier Ghost – “The events surrounding the haunting have led to it becoming a very late instance in American legal history when testimony of a ghost was accepted at a murder trial.”

Lincoln’s Ghost – “Lincoln’s Ghost is said to have haunted the White House since his death. It is widely believed that when he was president, Lincoln might have known of his assassination before he died.”

Kate Morgan – “Kate Morgan is an American who died under mysterious circumstances, and is thought by locals to be a ghost at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California.”

Red Lady of Huntingdon College – “The Red Lady of Huntingdon College is a ghost said to haunt the former Pratt Hall dormitory at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama.”

Resurrection Mary – “Resurrection Mary is a well-known Chicago area ghost story. Of the ‘vanishing hitchhiker’ type, the story takes place outside Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois.”

The Chase Vault – “The Chase Vault is a burial vault in the cemetery of the Christ Church Parish Church in Oistins, Christ Church, Barbados best known for a widespread legend of “mysterious moving coffins.”

Anneliese Michel – “Anneliese Michel was a German Catholic woman who was said to be possessed by demons and subsequently underwent an exorcism.”

Yurei – “Yurei are figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. Like their Chinese and Western counterparts, they are thought to be spirits kept from a peaceful afterlife.”

Krasue – “The Thai krasue is a nocturnal female spirit of Southeast Asian folklore. It manifests itself as a woman, usually young and beautiful, with her viscera hanging down from the neck, trailing below the head.”

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall – “A ghost which reportedly haunts Raynham Hall in Norfolk. It became one of the most famous hauntings in Great Britain when the image of the Brown Lady was captured by photographers from Country Life magazine.”

Borley Rectory Hauntings – “Borley Rectory was a Victorian mansion which gained fame as ‘The Most Haunted House in England,’ before it was destroyed by fire in 1939.”

Haunted Highway – “Streets, roads or highways which are the subject of folklore and urban legends, including rumors and reports of ghostly apparitions, ghostly figures, phantom hitchhikers, phantom vehicles, or other paranormal phenomena.”

Banshee – “The banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld.”

The Spooklight – “A mysterious visual phenomenon allegedly experienced by witnesses in a small area known locally as the ‘Devil’s Promenade’ on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma.”

Moon Point Cemetery – “A memorial site located south of Streator, Illinois. It has been the subject of ghost folklore for generations of Streator area residents.”

Ouija – “Mainstream religions and some occultists have associated use of the Ouija board with the threat of demonic possession and some have cautioned their followers not to use Ouija boards.”

Electronic Voice Phenomena – “Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are electronically generated noises that resemble speech, but are supposedly not the result of intentional voice recordings or renderings.”

Unusual Deaths – “This list includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history.”

Teke Teke – “Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young woman, or school girl, who fell on a rail way line and was cut in half by the oncoming train. Now a vengeful spirit, she carries a scythe or a saw to slice victims in half, mimicking her own disfigurement.”

Hairy Hands – “The Hairy Hands are a pair of disembodied hands that appear suddenly, grab at the steering wheel of a moving car or the handlebars of a motorcycle, and then force the victim off the road.”

Ghosts in Polynesian Culture – “In many Polynesian legends, ghosts were often actively involved in the affairs of the living. Ghosts might also cause sickness or even invade the body of ordinary people, to be driven out through strong medicines.”

Shubin – “Shubin is the mythological spirit of the mines. The legend of Shubin is distributed mainly in the mining towns of Donbas, Ukraine.”

Japanese Urban Legends (Supernatural) – “Japanese urban legends are enduring modern folktales of paranormal creatures and their attacks on (usually) innocent victims or non-supernatural, widespread rumors in popular culture.”

Nightmarchers – “In Hawaiian legend, Nightmarchers are the ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors. They are said to come forth from their burial sites to march out to past battles or to other sacred places.”

Jersey Devil – “The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States.”

The Devil’s Footprints – “After a heavy snowfall, trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow covering a total distance of some 40 to 100 miles. The footprints were so called because some people believed that they were the tracks of Satan.”

Shadow People – “Supernatural shadow-like humanoid figures that, according to believers, are seen flickering on walls and ceilings in the viewer’s peripheral vision.”

Waverly Hills Sanatorium – “Waverly Hills has been popularized on paranormal television as being one of the ‘most haunted’ hospitals in the eastern United States.”

Ghosts in Tibetan Culture – “Ghosts are explicitly recognized in the Tibetan Buddhist religion as they were in Indian Buddhism, occupying a distinct, but overlapping world to the human one.”

Flying Dutchmen – “The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that can never make port, doomed to sail the oceans forever.”

Silverpien – “Silverpilen (‘The Silver Arrow’) is a Stockholm Metro train which features in several urban legends alleging sightings of the train’s ghost.”

Boy Scout Lane – “Boy Scout Lane is an isolated road located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. A number of ghost stories and urban legends have become associated with the road, including the fictional deaths of a troop of Boy Scouts.”

The Curse of Little Bastard – “A series of accidents that mysteriously occurred from 1956 to 1960 involving James Dean’s car, Little Bastard.”

The Ghosts of Flight 401 – “Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a jet that crashed into the Florida Everglades on the night of December 29, 1972, causing 101 fatalities. Over the following months and years, employees of Eastern Air Lines began reporting sightings of the dead crew members.”

List of Ghost Ships – “A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a ship with no living crew aboard; it may be a ghostly vessel in folklore or fiction, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a real derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste.”

Clinton Road – “Clinton Road and the land around it have gained notoriety over the years as an area rife with many legends of paranormal occurrences such as sightings of ghosts, strange creatures and gatherings of witches, Satanists, and the Ku Klux Klan.”

The Nain Rouge – “French for ‘red dwarf’ or ‘red gnome,’ the nain rouge is a mythical creature that originated in Normandy, France. In the United States, it haunts Detroit, Michigan and is feared by its residents as ‘the harbinger of doom.’”

Mothman – “A mythical half moth half man from Point Pleasant, West Virginia described as a large humanoid with moth features on its face and large wings with fur covering its body.”

The Cock Lane Ghost – “The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762.”

Spring-Heeled Jack – “Spring-heeled Jack is a character in English folklore of the Victorian era who was known for his startling jumps.Sightings were reported all over England and were especially prevalent in suburban London, the Midlands, and Scotland.

Melon Heads – “Melon Heads is the name given to legendary beings and urban legends in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Connecticut generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding places to attack people.”

Sayona – “La Sayona is a legend from Venezuela, represented by the spirit of a woman that shows up only to men that have love affairs out of their marriages.”

The Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait – “A ghost ship that can be seen sailing ablaze within the Northumberland Strait. This phantom ship has been reported for over 220 years with numerous eyewitness accounts.”

Maco Light – “A supposedly anomalous light, or ‘ghost light,’ occasionally seen between the late 19th century and 1977 along a section of railroad track near the unincorporated community of Maco, North Carolina.”

Poltergeist – “In folklore and the paranormal, a poltergeist is the apparent manifestation of an invisible but noisy, disruptive or destructive entity. Most accounts of poltergeist manifestations involve noises and destruction that have no apparent cause.”

Aokigahara – “Aokigahara has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology and is a popular place for suicides.”

Demon – “A demon is a supernatural, often malevolent, being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, and folklore.”

List of Cryptids – “A list of cryptids and alleged relicts, which are animals and plants studied under the field of cryptozoology. Their presumptive existence has often been derived from anecdotal or other evidence considered insufficient by mainstream science.”

Zombie – “A zombie is an animated corpse resurrected by mystical means, such as witchcraft.”

Witch – “Witchcraft is the use of alleged supernatural, magical faculties. This may take many forms, depending on cultural context.”